Chemistry in Pictures - Cooling the qubits

Quantum computers are divas. To get good performance out of a quantum computer, physicists need to make sure the machines’ quantum bits (aka qubits) can maintain a certain quantum state for long enough to complete a computational task—in the parlance of the field, the qubits need a long coherence time. If qubits don’t have long coherence times, they produce errors during calculations. The elaborate hardware shown helps cool Google’s quantum computer to 15 millikelvin—colder than outer space.